1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to improvement in the burning efficiency of liquid fuels such as gasoline, as well as other fuels such as diesel oil, jet fuels, kerosene, naphthas, etc., which are generally used in internal combustion engines of either the piston or rotating turbine type. The provision of non-polluting additives which raise the burning efficiency of these fuels is a desirable goal.
2. Discussion of Prior Art
The addition of additives to gasoline and similar fuels in order to improve their burning efficiency, is a well known practice. The original and traditional additive, tetraethyl lead, has become disfavored due to its environmentally polluting qualities. Unfortunately, the additives required to obtain similar octane numbers to that obtained from tetraethyl lead requires refining procedures and the use of additives which are fairly expensive. It would therefore be desirable to find a relatively inexpensive commercially available group of additives with high energy content which would serve this purpose. Acetylene and its low molecular weight homologues are a class of energy rich molecules which have been proposed or tested for rocket fuel applications. The energy liberated when acetylene is decomposed to its elements is large and amounts to almost 54 kilocalories per gram. Unfortunately however, acetylenes are rather unstable and have a tendency to explode. Thus, they would not be suitable for this purpose.